Doing the dishes: a thankless job and the dreaded finale to cooking and eating. Couples fight about who has to do them, and how they’re done. The mere mention of the phrase can elicit an audible groan. Which is precisely the reason dishwashers can be so desirable. Though many new dishwashers have a water conserving “eco” setting, these appliances can still be energy inefficient and water wasters, especially if you have an older machine or don’t have enough dishes to fill up. Now, several designers have rethought our approach to hand-washing dishes, making the this option more efficient, interesting, and appealing.

DBA, a new, ecologically-minded lifestyle company, has reinterpreted the traditional dish rack with a unique design that employs a gradation in the spacing of flexible rods for holding dishes of all sizes and shapes. On one end of the rack, the rod spacing is denser, providing enough support for cutlery and more delicate items. The sparser arrangement on the other end leaves enough room for larger bowls and pans. Made entirely from recycled polypropylene, the dish rack rods are connected by a flexible mesh, allowing the rack to be twisted open and rinsed. A minimal and lovely addition for the counter-top landscape, this rack could be just the thing for a tired routine.

DBA's dish rack

Giffen' Termeer's Drip Dry Dishes

Taking another minimal approach, but from a different perspective, design studio Giffin’Termeer’s dish-drying solution is built right into the dishes themselves. Their Drip-Dry dish set–comprised of a plate, bowl, and cup–come equipped with a handy little stand of their own, based on fragments of tree branches. After washing, the self-sufficient dishes can be stood up on end and placed on a towel to dry, sans rack. Each piece is wheel-thrown by hand in stoneware, and then the contrasting red, rapid-prototyped plastic stands, or sprigs, are added. The sprigs also serve as a handy perch for holding each dish when eating from them.

Studio Gorm's Flow Kitchen

Finally, Studio Gorm approached the dishwashing and drying process holistically, integrating it into an entire kitchen system. Their concept, Flow Kitchen, incorporates a dish rack that hangs usefully over plant boxes, where water drips from clean dishes to be put to use sustaining herbs and edible plants (be sure to rinse well!). This hanging-dish system also opens up counter space and proudly displays dishes as they dry, serving as an open cupboard as well. Additionally, the Flow Kitchen allows for easy clean-up of food waste by including a built-in compost bin under the counter. Just slide scrap food straight from the counter into the bin, where worms work away to make rich soil for the herbs and plants on top.

Studio Gorm's Flow Kitchen (detail)

With these fresh design solutions, one may actually start to look forward to cleaning dishes by hand after a meal—we wouldn’t go so far to say that couples would fight for it, but you never know. Now, on to drying….